Adaptive control for smart water distribution systems

The rationalization of energy and water consumption is becoming increasingly important. Water distribution systems require energy to operate, and a consumption trade-off became a necessity. Existing water distribution systems still rely on traditional feedback control that is reactive and sub-optimal. The proliferation of the Internet of Things (loT) provides a myriad of opportunities to achieve new levels of optimization for water distribution systems. This paper presents the design and simulation of a water distribution testbed currently under construction at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The simulation results show the superiority of loT-based adaptive control schemes over existing control approaches, with no additional cost. The paper provides a roadmap for loT-based system design and advanced control to minimize the consumption under user convenience constraints.